I have a sheet of plexiglass that has metal strips (Aluminum) that will be connected through wires to an Arduino. The Arduino is grounded but the metal strips are not. The metal strips will rest on top of plexiglass. I'm wondering how I could ground the metal strips? Is there a material I can place under the metal strips that I can attach ground to in order to reduce interference/cross talk (between the Aluminum strips)?
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2\$\begingroup\$ Welcome to EE.SE! Your question is a bit confusing and I think you will get much better advice if you tell us exactly how you are using this device and how it is connected to the Arduino. Why do you want to ground the strips? Will the device still function if the strips are grounded? In particular, if you have wires connected to the strips, why can't you ground those wires? \$\endgroup\$– Joe HassCommented Jan 30, 2014 at 21:24
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\$\begingroup\$ @JoeHass thanks for the feedback. i'm building my own capacitive sensor. no it doesn't really work without the ground - unless the object it is detecting is connected to ground. But i was hoping to not connect the object it is detecting to ground - that would not look nice. I'm not sure why grounding the object it is detecting worked :S I'm also not sure how i can get the same outcome, without grounding the objects that the capacitive sensor is detecting... I thought maybe if i properly grounded the Aluminum strips it would work? any ideas? \$\endgroup\$– BlueMonsterCommented Jan 31, 2014 at 2:47
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2\$\begingroup\$ Consider interlacing grounded strips with the ungrounded sense strips, and calibrating out the background capacitance they cause. \$\endgroup\$– Chris StrattonCommented Jan 31, 2014 at 4:51
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I'm assuming that you want to use each of the aluminum strips as some sort of input, and to have them pulled low by default. If that's the case, connect each strip to one of the GND pins of the arduino with a 10kohm resistor (or something in that ballpark), one resistor per aluminum strip. This will pull each strip low while still allowing a high signal to be applied through them.
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\$\begingroup\$ yes. i'm building my own capacitive sensor using Aluminum strips. The problem is, if i touch the grid, it works fine - but this is because i'm grounded. However, if i place another object on my capacitive sensor (that is not grounded) it does not work. I was looking for a way to have the capacitive sensor somehow grounded properly (the Aluminum strips) such that the objects that the capacitive sensor is detecting does not need to be directly grounded. any ideas? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jan 31, 2014 at 2:49